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Discussion on: A coding interview question asked at Google

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Halfwit Genius

O(s+b) is good. s for small( to search for) and b for big (to search in). But I guess, using O(s log b) is a better approach, esp if b>>s. Instead of the linear search, going with a modified binary search that indicates whether the element being searched is outside the other array's bounds would be much faster. In that case, you can get rid of the condition of the smaller array being sorted.